As some of you know, I am collecting pocketwatches, IWC only.
Far from saying that my collection is a museum collection but I am proud to
have found some nice and rare pieces over time.
Some of the pocketwatches are common, easy to find on the market, sometimes in
better condition than mine, but some I have are gems.
So in these crazy times, as the museum in Schaffhausen is closed, why not open
one here on the forum.
As long as the museum is closed, I will post here daily a pocketwatch from my
collection.
I hope I don't run out of pieces before the virus is beaten. Fingers crossed
for all of us.
I will post them in a random order, with some comments, feel free to join.
Keep safe all.
DAY 85, cal 65, flowers
I love the fingerbridge movements made by IWC, the cal 73 is one of my
favorite movements. And I collected a few during the years. Already some
beauties were shown here with splendid art deco cases in gold.
But I was still missing the cal 65. So that one was on my radar for some time.
Only around 24000 were made, not too rare but not as easy to find as a cal 73
or 52.
So, when discovering this one at an auction, looking at the dial, the case,
the movement, that was it, this was the cal 65 that should fit into my
collection.
We are day 85 in my series of the virtual pocketwatch museum. The goal was to
show a pocketwatch of my collection every day the museum was closed. I really
hope that it opens again soon as my folder of remaining pocketwatches gets
smaller and smaller, but still some nice ones to show.
For those who followed the series, I guess you will see united in this watch
today, plenty of things that were described on other watches too.
For instance, the number on the inside of the case, on the edge ( here nr 598
) that was stamped into the case so assembly with the caseback ( here number
366598 ) would be easy and not mixed up.
Another example is a watch shown a few days ago where the books mention 13/24
interieurement ( on the inside ), the numbers 13 to 24 are printed/painted on
the inside of the number 1 to 12.
And then the case. This case is unique, nver saw one like this before.
As we know that IWC didn't made its own cases for decades, this case was made
by the firm Huguenin.
As you see mentioned on the caseback.
I did a bit of research about that company and saw that they started the same
year as IWC, 1868.
Here is a bit of info found on their website.
"
In 1868, the young engraver Fritz Huguenin and his brother Guillocheur Albert
set up a small watch-case design workshop. It wasn't long before they realised
the value that embossing could add to their work. They therefore bought a
spindle press, which they used to emboss their first medal in 1888.
Over time, the Huguenin brothers specialised in the Niel method, which is used
to give silver watches a black finish. This method made them famous worldwide
and as a result of their new-found success, they switched from manual
production to industrial production in 1899, building the factory in Le Locle
that is still used today."
So again a link to watches shown here before with Niello cases. A lot of these
were made by Guegenin too, I believe.
We saw also different case decorations, the Niello , cases with engravings,
even with enamel decoration but this cal 65 has an embossed caseback.
Also an art mastered by Huguenin. And here in a silver case and with gold
highlights of some flowers. Can you imagine the joy of receiving this one and
admiring beauty like this. The movement in super condition, a pristine dial,
hands and then the case, a piece of art.
Even the bow and the crown tube is part of the flower decoration.
So happy to present it to you today.
It can be dated 1904 for the movement and 1906 for the case. On the dustcover
there is written H. Gilomen, Schaffhausen., so a local delivery.
book by
On this
Beautiful
